Bubbles are in relaxed mode, with a touch of fatigue in the glass. Sparse tiny streams of bubbles persist, though do not expect the bottle to open with a pressure behind the cork neither an array of bubbles and foam in the glass as it is poured. Using a wide bowled Lehmann glass and this allows the wine to absorb plenty of the atmosphere and rapidly meet with the room temperature where both its aromas and flavours improve. On the nose is a candied / dried yellow fruit character with honey on toast and a slight dark berry expression. Not overly sweet, more dry expression though nonetheless your mouth salivates in anticipation. Flavours are rich and highly satisfying for any appreciator of vintage Champagne. Though the wine has been on cork for around 20 years it still holds on to many great fruit flavours albeit dried / canned fruits over fresh. Dried apricot, peach slices, honey, saline, lightly toasted bread, creamy chalk, mushroom/forest floor. Older wine reviews of the 1996 upon it's first release forecast the optimum drinking time of around 2010 and that the wine itself being a 96 vintage is likely to lose much of its quality with longer storage - now in 2023 it is still a very fine and enjoyable vintage Champagne and displays great taste characters.